A Big Tech watchdog group is speaking out about the way Silicon Valley’s titans of industry have handled the war between Russia and Ukraine.
“Apparently these Big Tech monopolists find everyday conservative Americans more objectionable than murderous foreign dictators,” Mike Davis, founder and president of the Internet Accountability Project (IAP) told The Tennessee Star Thursday. “They’re willing to silence and censor political voices with which they disagree while welcoming war criminals like Putin with open arms. That alone should be enough to recognize these Big Tech monopolists are not our friends.”
Big Tech is known for its censorship of American conservatives.
For example, Twitter, Facebook, and Google-owned YouTube have all banned former President Donald Trump in an unprecedented move to silence a world leader. They silenced the former president after the January 6 riot at the Capitol Building, saying that Trump was inciting violence.
Meanwhile, Russian dictator and President Vladimir Putin still uses those platforms unabated, even while his soldiers launch a full-scale war on Ukraine.
Davis spoke with The Star on the heels of a press release that the group released Wednesday.
In the release, Davis said the following:
“Vladimir Putin and his violent propaganda henchmen continue to use American Big Tech platforms to encourage genocide and war crimes against Ukrainians. Yet they remain active users on multiple American social media platforms, including YouTube and Twitter, that regularly ban conservative users and elected officials for so-called ‘disinformation.’ This is especially outrageous and hypocritical considering Google’s YouTube banned Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny at Putin’s request. Big Tech argues its interests are aligned with American national security interests, yet they continue to allow our enemies to exploit their platforms and services while they silence and de-platform conservatives exercising their free speech rights.”
Navalny is currently imprisoned in Russia after he led a movement to democratize the nation.
“Big Tech monopolists are not patriotic; they are globalists opposed to American interests,” he said. “They must be broken up to restore the American values of competition and open dialogue.”
All over the world, governments have been taking notice of the monopolistic nature of Big Tech companies.
The U.S., which took longer than most to act, finally began suing the companies in 2020, though the major government lawsuits do not involve First Amendment rights or censorship of American citizens.
It sued Google – the largest of the internet giants – in 2020 for its alleged monopolistic practices.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is suing Facebook for monopolistic practices, claiming that it bought competitors just so it could shut them down and avoid potential competition.
_ _ _
Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Sun and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Vladimir Putin” by Kremlin.ru. CC BY 4.0.
[…] The Tennessee Star […]